SUPER EAGLES OF NIGERIA MOVE UP FIFA RANKING
Nigeria’s position in the monthly rankings released on Thursday by the world football governing body, FIFA has improved thanks to the victory over Niger and a draw recorded against Tunisia in the African Nations Championships, by the home-based Super Eagle.
They are ranked 12th in Africa and while they were 66th in January, they have now slightly improved to 63rd position in the February rankings just released.
The home-based Eagles were tipped to go all the way in the CHAN tournament but failed to go beyond the first round and will now have to buckle up for the crucial Africa Cup of Nations qualifying matches against Egypt coming up next month first in Kaduna and then Cairo.
On the continent, Ivory Coast remains the best ranked, and are at number 28 in the world. Cape Verde is second after gaining six positions while Algeria and Ghana slot in at numbers three and four in the continent and 36 and 41 in the world.
Senegal is the fifth best team in Africa and number 45 in the world.
With the current 20 best-ranked teams yet to play an A-game in 2016, the top 18 positions remain unchanged for the February edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking.
Belgium, Argentina and Spain hold their increasingly familiar top three slots while Hungary (19, plus 1) and Turkey (20, plus 1) enter the top 20 thanks to Côte d’Ivoire’s exit (28, minus 9).
FIFA gave a special mention to CHAN hosts, Rwanda, who moved up six places to 85 in the latest ranking.
The Wasps won three of their six matches played since early January, while also closing out 2015 with a shock-upset over African heavyweights Côte d’Ivoire in an international friendly played on 16 December 2015.
The next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will be published on 3 March 2016.
